Related Links

The AHOC has the following goals: To disseminate information about health outcomes research; To maintain an active network of
collaborators in health outcomes research; To maintain a database of health outcomes projects and instruments; To facilitate health outcomes research throughout Australasia; To provide advice on the selection of measures for health outcomes assessment; To provide health outcomes education and training and; To organise national and international conferences and seminars on health
outcomes. The AHOC provides an information service for health practitioners and the research community on health outcomes measurement and research and undertakes research consultancies for the government and the private sectors.

The Australian Society for Quality of Life Studies (ACQOL) is the Australian branch of the International Society for Quality of Life Studies. ACQOL exists as a web-based organization dedicated to the facilitation of research into quality of life

AQOL-Melbourne: This website is designed to help researchers who are considering using, or who are using, one of the two Assessment of Quality of Life instruments (the AQOL and the AQOL-2). The AQOL instrument is a utility for measuring health-related quality of life The website includes information on: development of the instruments; details of the psychometric properties of the instruments; guidelines for administration, scoring and interpretation; copies of the instruments which you can download; the AQOL User Manual; details of academic publications pertaining to the AQOL instruments.

http://www.buseco.monash.edu.au/centres/che/projects/aqol/aqol.php

AQOL-Monash: This website is provided by the Centre for Health and Economics, Monash University, and contains more information regarding the Assessment of Quality-of-Life instruments.

http://www.chere.uts.edu.au/

The Centre for Health Economics Research and Evaluation is a Key University Research Centre of the University of Technology, Sydney. CHERE is a joint initiative of the Faculties of Business and Nursing, Midwifery and Health at the University of Technology, Sydney, in collaboration with Sydney South West Area Health Service. It was established as a UTS Centre in February, 2002.

http://phi.uhce.ox.ac.uk/

The Patient-assessed Health Instruments Group (PHIG) is part of the National Centre for Health Outcomes Development and is based in the Unit of Health-care Epidemiology at the University of Oxford. The PHIG is a multidisciplinary team with a range of experience in the measurement of HRQL. Instruments developed by group members for use within specific populations include the Oxford Hip Score, Parkinson’s Disease Questionnaire and the UK Seattle Angina Questionnaire. They have also contributed to the evaluation of widely used generic instruments including the EuroQol and SF-36, and individualised instruments, including the Patient Generated Index.

EQ-5D is a standardised instrument for use as a measure of health outcome. Applicable to a wide range of health conditions and treatments, it provides a simple descriptive profile and a single index value for health status. This website contains information about the EuroQol Group, membership and research activities, details of EQ-5D development and current status.

http://www.healthutilities.com/intro.htm

Health Utilities Incorporated specializes in preference-based (utility) measures of health-related quality of life for use in:
* describing treatment processes and outcomes in clinical studies;
* economic evaluations of health care programs;
* the measurement and monitoring of population health.
HUInc provides support services for the Health Utilities Index measurement system, which is a generic, preference-scored, comprehensive system for measuring health status, health-related quality of life, and producing utility scores.

The scientific study of Quality of Life relevant to health and healthcare is the mission of the International Society for Quality of Life Research (ISOQOL). The Society promotes the rigorous investigation of health-related quality of life measurement from conceptualization to application and practice. ISOQOL fosters the worldwide exchange of information through Scientific Publications, International Conferences, Educational Outreach, and Collaborative Support for HRQOL Initiatives.

The International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies (ISQOLS) is an international society whose main purpose is to promote and encourage research in the field of quality-of-life (QOL) studies.

The Patient-Reported Outcome and Quality-of-Life Instruments Database aims to identify and describe Patient-Reported Outcome and Quality-Of-Life instruments to assist with the selection of appropriate instruments and to facilitate access to them.

QualityMetric advocates standardized incorporation of the patient’s voice into almost every facet of health care including risk screening, treatment planning and drug efficacy measurement. This is accomplished via the QualityMetric family of short-form (SF) Generic Health Surveys, which are the most scientifically-validated and widely-used health-related quality of life tools in existence. While the SF tools have long been recognized as the gold-standard for patient-reported outcomes measurement, QualityMetric’s team of measurement experts continuously seek opportunities to refine these tools.

WHOQOL is an international collaboration which has developed Quality-of-Life profile instruments designed to be cross-culturally valid and sensitive. The instruments have wide application in cross-sectional population studies as well as in intervention evaluations, particularly in the health field. The most useful of these three sites for Australian researchers is the Australian site. This has copies of the Australian WHOQOL instruments and scoring algorithms (country specific), the Australian registration process (WHOQOL instruments are copyright and cannot be used without registration), and it also has links to the other WHOQOL sites for local languages.